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87 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 706 (2019)
Standing on Shaky Ground: How Circuit Courts Reconcile Legal Rights and Injuries in Face after Spokeo v. Robins

handle is hein.journals/gwlr87 and id is 752 raw text is: NOTE Standing on Shaky Ground: How Circuit Courts Reconcile Legal Rights and Injuries in Fact After Spokeo v. Robins James Hannaway* ABSTRACT In Spokeo v. Robins, the Supreme Court attempted to resolve a tension that has existed since the birth of modem Article III standing. On one hand, Congress has always been able to create legal rights, the invasion of which creates standing to sue. On the other hand, to satisfy the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III, a plaintiff always needs to allege an injury in fact, which exists independent of the law. Before Spokeo, the Court offered contra- dictory answers as to whether Congress can create legal rights which would suffice, in and of themselves, to create an injury in fact every time a plaintiff alleged the violation of his or her legal rights. In Spokeo, the Court muddied the waters even more. This Note conducts a content analysis of circuit court decisions in the wake of Spokeo to show that courts find Congress's judgment relevant to injury-in-fact analysis in a majority of cases. This Note surveys how courts use various tools of statutory interpretation to determine Con- gress's judgment, then suggests a uniform framework for injury-in-fact analy- sis that can achieve sensible and consistent results. * J.D., The George Washington University Law School. Many thanks to Molly Rucki, Charles Davis, Eun Hee Han, Alan B. Morrison, Jonathan R. Siegel, and Robert L. Glicksman for their insightful comments during the drafting of this Note, and to Katelyn Whitfield and the associates and members of The George Washington Law Review for their thoughtful edits. The author would like to dedicate this piece to his late father, John Hannaway (J.D. 1983). All errors are the author's alone. May 2019 Vol. 87 No. 3 706